Cass School of Education and Communities

Jo Richardson Community School -

Developing teachers as coaches

Developing teachers coaches• Aims and objectives• Individuals and change• Four approaches to individuals and change• Unconscious incompetence• Kolb’s learning cycle• The behavioural approach to change• The cognitive approach to change• The psychodynamic approach to change• The humanistic psychology approach to change

Aims and objectives• Aim for all sessions: • Develop teachers skilled in short term skills focused

coaching for teachers• Objectives for today's session:• Understand impact of change on individuals• Understand difference between coaching and mentoring• Develop an understanding of how and when to coach or

mentor• Consider ones development requirements• Consider ethical issues

Individuals and change

Four approaches to individuals and change

Unconscious incompetence

Usual example is driving a familiar car

Kolb’s learning cycle

It shows that we learn through a process ofdoing and thinking.

The behavioural approach to change

Behaviourists use feedback in coaching conversations.Government want payment by results, why and what are there assumptions?

The cognitive approach to change

The psychodynamic approach to change

The humanistic psychology approach to change

Models combined

.. Studies found that to be effective mentors need to:

Respect their mentees as adult learners, taking account of their individual learning styles, and ensuring that the strategies employed to support their learning are responsive to their concerns and appropriate to their current stage of development.

Seek to help mentees to identify and interrogate critically their conceptions of teaching, of learning to teach and of mentoring, which can otherwise present hidden barriers to their subsequent learning and development. This process should include explicit discussion of the nature and advantages of different forms of reflection.

Provide their mentees with emotional and psychological support, and make them feel welcome, accepted and included.

Make time for their mentees: have regular meetings with them and be ‘available’ for informal discussion at other times.

Allow their mentees an appropriate degree of autonomy to make decisions and to develop their own teaching styles.

Ensure their mentees are sufficiently challenged and sufficiently educated about and scaffolded into deeper levels of thinking and reflection, notably about teaching and learning.

Be sensitive, focus on specific aspects of teaching, and facilitate genuine constructive dialogue that includes joint exploration of strengths/weaknesses and jointly finding solutions to challenges, in observation and feedback.

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Studies found that the following can place limitations on the effectiveness of mentoring:

Concern to protect their ‘own’ pupils and their learning can lead mentors to guide their mentees into ‘low risk’ activities.

Mentors not giving their mentees sufficient ‘freedom to innovate’.

Mentor’s tendency to see their role primarily in terms of the provision of safe sites for trial and error learning.

Mentor’s tendency to focus, in their interactions with mentees, on matters of technical rationality and/or practical issues such as classroom management, craft knowledge and mentees’ teaching of subject content, with insufficient attention to pedagogical issues, or to the promotion of reflective practice incorporating an examination of principles behind the practice.

Mentor’s limited understanding of the concept of critical reflection.

Mentor’s tendency to lack the confidence to incorporate ‘theoretical’ insights into their work with mentees.

. Beginning teaching

Supervised teaching

From teaching to learning

Reflective teaching

Stage of trainee development

Survival Recognising difficulties

Hitting the plateau

Moving on

Focus of trainee learning

Rules, rituals, routines and establishing authority

Teaching standards

Understanding pupil learning and developing effective teaching

Taking control and developing professionalism

Role of mentor / tutor

Providing models of effective practice

As trainers, providing focused advice and instruction

As critical friends, providing constructive critique for development

As co-enquirers, joining together in aspects of professional development

Key mentoring strategies

Trainee observation focused on class routines and teacher techniques

Focused observation by trainee, combined with structured observation of the trainee and feedback

Focused observation by, and structured observation of, the trainee. Re-examination of lesson planning.

Partnership in teaching and supervision.

How are mentors chosen?

Typically, a veteran teacher at the same grade level is called on. Sometimes the same teacher mentors many teachers. This situation has advantages and drawbacks.

Mentoring and Coaching Activity 1

Mentoring Coaching

Coaching

• Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their contribution and performance. Focusing on behaviours and mindset as well as task creates a step change in results.

(Carole Gaskall.)• A conversational yet focused discipline that

supports people in learning how to lead and manage themselves more effectively in relation to their issues and their contexts and their potential. (McDermott and Jago 2005)

The purpose and function of coaching models (Grant 2011)

• Delineate specific phases of the conversation

• Act as a memory aid for the coach• Ensure that barriers to change have been

addressed• Provide clarification and focus• Draw the coachee’s attention to the here

and now and the matter in hand

Coaching models (Grant 2011) GROW: Goals, Reality, Options, Wrap-up (or will/way forward) (Alexander)

T-GROW: Topic, Goal, Reality, Wrap-up (Downey 2003)

SO*I*GROW: Situation, Opportunities, Implications, Goal, Reality, Options, Will (McKinsey)

4A: Agenda, Analysis, Agreement, Action (Mount Eliza School of Business)

CLEAR: Contracting, Listening, Exploring, Action, Review (Hawkins and Smith)

OSKAR: Outcome, Scaling, Knowhow and resources, Affirm and action, Review (Jackson & McKergow)

ACHIEVE: Assess current situations, Creative brainstorming of alternative current situations, Hone goals, Initiate options, Evaluate options, Valid action programme design, Encourage momentum (Dembkowski and Eldridge 2003)

PRACTICE: Problem identification, Realistic relevant goals developed, Alternative solutions generated, Consideration of consequences, Target most feasible solutions, Implementation of chosen solutions, Evaluation. (Palmer 2007)

OUTCOMES: Objectives for session, Understanding – the coach should understand why the coachee wants to reach the objective, Take stock, Clarify, Option generation, Motivate to action, Enthuse and encourage, Support (Mackintosh 2005)

Gap analysis models (Grant p121)

Solution focused coaching http://youtu.be/JX2FnFUqLMo

Are there any elements in any of these models that are not explicitly or

implicitly part of any other model?

What key principles of coaching are implied by these models?

Mentoring or Coaching

Coaching and Mentoring

• What are the aims and purposes of coaching and of mentoring and in what ways are they similar and different?

• What are the processes of coaching and of mentoring and in what ways are they similar and different?

• What would determine whether coaching or mentoring was most appropriate for the development of an individual in a school/academy?